A graphics processing unit (GPU) may implement a graphics processing pipeline that includes a tessellation stage. The tessellation stage converts a surface into a plurality of primitives on the GPU, resulting in a more detailed surface. For example, the GPU can receive information for a coarse surface, and generate a high resolution surface, rather than receiving information for the high resolution surface. Receiving information for the high resolution surface, rather than the coarse surface, may be bandwidth inefficient because the amount of information needed to define the high resolution surface may be much greater than the amount of information needed to define the coarse surface.